Re: Boy. I know it has been a Janus Films title for some time, but for some reason it is no longer listed on their web site. I checked under “Boy”, “Shonen”, and “Oshima”. I could have sworn it was there some months back.

This looks good. Have there been any rumors of this or any other Oshima films getting the restoration rounds recently?

Someone talking about Oshima! Criterion has the rights to the Youth Trilogy Films, A Town of Love and Hope, Boy, The Man Who Left His Will on Film, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, Dear Summer Sister and The Ceremony. Oshima was better known for his most transgressive films which is a shame because I've always felt his best films were not the best known ones. Boy is one of his best and is an exceptionally moving film. I cannot fathom why Criterion hasn't put it out yet. His best film for my money is The Ceremony which is sort of a perverse inversion of something Ozu would have made. Sort of like Imamura's The Profound Desire of the Gods but significantly smaller in scope. I am unsure about the rights to Taboo but I think that would make a good mid tier release. I don't think it's a masterpiece by any means but it's an important film as it dealt openly with gay relationships among samurai. It feels like almost like an apology at times, with shots that could have come straight from Mizoguchi (The film even refrences the book Ugetsu is based on.). Boy however remains the one I think that has the most marketing potential. It's an immensely moving film from a filmmaker who more often than not is overtly cynical.

You DO NOT however want to see Max, Mon Amour though which I can proudly state is one of the most bizarre misfires I've ever seen in my very short life. It's essentially a straight faced film about a woman falling in love with a chimp. Like without any surrealism.

Speaking of Oshima, Carlotta has issued a box set back in 2015 with Boy, The Ceremony and Death by Hanging in Blu. Those are genuine HD masters so I figured Criterion would get them out sooner than later. Yet more three years have passed and we still have only Death by Hanging, so Criterion might be waiting on some further restoration work.

Re: Boy. I know it has been a Janus Films title for some time, but for some reason it is no longer listed on their web site. I checked under “Boy”, “Shonen”, and “Oshima”. I could have sworn it was there some months back.

THE CEREMONY isn't there either, and the titles in the Eclipse Box are missing too. Oh no. And yet they were all on the late FilmStruck.

I'm pretty sure the Janus site only lists films for which they can provide screening materials. That doesn't mean their other holdings can't be booked, just that the exhibitor would have to make other arrangements for a print/DCP/whatever. An Oshima series held here earlier this year consisted entirely of titles held by Janus but the prints were mostly obtained from elsewhere (including a 16mm copy of Night and Fog in Japan).